January 23 1980
Cuddly Toys
Guillotine Theater
Genre: New Wave
4 out of 5
Highlights:
Brain Savior
Cuddly Toys comes out of the gate blaring with theatrical New Wave that, with the pounding pianos and soaring saxophones calls to mind the most retro-Glam of 7 years earlier.
This is a theater piece on wax. As evidenced by that cover. It’s New Wave Tubes. Or a punk Mystic Knights (not in style but in presentation).
This is the era that would give us stuff like Gwar. Back when the holy merging of rock and theater was something to be enthralled by.
If Gary Numan had a sense of theatricality beyond a dystopian worldview and merged with, say, Jim Steinman, you get songs like “Join the Girls” and “Brain Savior” and so many others. “Madman” is the band showing their influences on their sleeves. This is an audition for a David Bowie inspired musical.
But there’s already a Bowie and if he had wanted to make a Broadway musical out of Ziggy Stardust, he most likely would have.
Had I heard this record in 1980 I might have been a Cuddly Toys fan. I’m not sure any of it made it across the pond. But it’s sure is a worthwhile relic of an era long gone.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/guillotine-theatre/264313435
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